picture with a name

I was afraid someone would dig this up again....nice to meet you Mr.Cooper!

 

Man , Must be a bunch of people in the concession business wanted by law enforcement
 

Nice shovels. Is that a Martin? Maybe a PSE?

Michael Hoffman


Nice shovels. Is that a Martin? Maybe a PSE?

Those words make me  I only shoot MATHEWS

A friend of mine is on their pro staff-- David Hale.

 ahem......... nice pic wild dog , and mr. alaska magin that ,that bow  landed right behind the ears of that ole moose....thats some good shooten there,,, do you eat moose? or sell the meat? nice to meet both you!

Buck & Vi's
 

 do you eat moose? or sell the meat? 

 
Man yes on eating moose I wish the HD would approve the selling of wild game I'd have Bear,Caribou & Moose hot dogs and burgers on the menu
 
 

 

Mike (that me) 
 
Chris (my better half)

Nice set up, and nice to meet you and the Mrs.The nervousness I would like to say will go away after time, but then again i have a chef that teaches culnary arts at the high school eat at our place  when going home or to work at his second job, I still get nervous cooking for him(after he's a  pro LOL) and then this w/e I had a guy come up to me at the paint ball gig we did and introduce himself, he was  head chef at one of disney's resorts playing a little paint ball! asked if he could check our rig out he had heard it was immaculate !  he told me he tried the cheese steak and was very impressed......,,,cash register will be like breathing after about a month,

Looks good,,,, What's the menu?
Signage is a must... build yourself a couple of a frame signs, cheap to do out of plywood, paint a solid color, lettering in a contrasting color, or use chalk board paint.... The other a dry erase board for daily special or other message... "try our....."
I made a couple with smooth sided shower surround material..4x8 sheet for under $20..dry erase markers for $10..
Get some helium balloons, tie them to the sign... anything to attract attention.
Are you cooking while at the location?.... Smoke is a good attractant... also shows that you are doing the real deal.
 
I smoke a couple of pork butts once a week for pp sands...
everyone always want's to know whats cooking... even if they know I smoke every week... might be doing something special and they don't want to miss out.
Learn to be a pro at counting cash.... you need to be sharper and quicker than the customer.
ALWAYS COUNT YOUR CHANGE BACK OUT LOUD WITH THE CUSTOMER PAYING ATTENTION!
Don't just hand the customer a stack of money.
I never put the bills handed to me in the drawer until I have counted back the change.....There will never be any confusion on what bill you just took in.
Easy for someone to give you a 10, you put in the drawer and give them change, and they say I gave you a 20..... your busy, your not sure of it, don't want an argument,,,,and the guy looks nice enough..you think no way he could be trying to get an extra 10 you of me, well he just did...and got free lunch too!
Get yourself a bank bag... Use it for a change bank. I keep $300 in 1's 5's & 10's.... add change when needed...
Start the day out with a specific amount in the drawer every day, say$100...some days you will get exact change all day long, other you will exhaust all of your change.

I messed up and put the message here and deleted most of it and put it on my link. 5yrs and goal. But thank you Buck&vicki, and Chefbuba for the input I'll try the sign on frp board just got to be more noticed. As soon as the wife post her pic's on facebook I'll post them here. We have a facebook page it's (Barbeque Barn). I was counting the change back to them just Slower than molasses going uphill in January.  Just trying to get it right.

Mike, 
i dont envy you one bit my friend....lol, ive got the opening day jitters already and still have a month or more work to do 
just got back from the drag strip and my buddy has been telling everyone!.... they were all over me tonight, wheres the brisket, wheres the cubans, were tired of these track dogs!......i put on a good game face, but the whole time my doo dads are drawing up into my stomach and im thinking to myself.... ohhh man, this is really fixing to be real.....what now !!, lol
ive got another friend who cooks at waffle house has been bugging me to let him cook for me(show me the ropes) the first few times out, he thinks its the neatest thing since sliced bread...... i may just cheese out and take him up on his offer.... at least the first night at the race track......

Hi Bruce
All take all the help I can get for free as long as it help and not in my way. I can work up to getting more business then being rushed into it. Just don't won't to feel over run at first. But I got people that are wanting to help out and that ok. And I can take advice but I'll use it like a grain of salt, lightly. What great about this site is there a lot of kowneledge and its from experience. So if you think you got an idea throw it out there and I'm sure your going to get feed back, maybe not always be what your thinking  about. But a view from a diffrent direction. Sorry to hear about the storms in your area. Took a lot of lives and damage in the billions, hard to not feel poeple hard times in the world today. Thank you BackalleyBurger for the feed back. Mike

yea, i think im going to do a couple of soft openings first before i hit the race track.... i have a friend with a bar that does bike night on wednesdays.... a nice slower older crowd that will cut me some slack if i need it.....
 
thanks about the storms, funny thing is, i was sitting here waiting for the worst, didnt have radio... all the local stations went static early on..... then really nothing on my side of town... i woke up the next day to find out all he77 broke loose..... 

I think you'll find bikers to be the best of giving you slack.. we have 2 "biker Bars" here and we do the food at both, one just had a bike thing last sat. and the other has a music jam every sun. and we do that every sun for them,most of them will order then go off and get a beer or be talking to others till the food is done never ever have we had a bad experience with them at any place. the one thing is always get the money first, they wont mind paying in advance, but i've learned that sometimes they might forget they even ordered when having a bit to much of the beer,and wonder off and you never see them again that night

Buck & Vi's


I think you'll find bikers to be the best of giving you slack.. we have 2 "biker Bars" here and we do the food at both, one just had a bike thing last sat. and the other has a music jam every sun. and we do that every sun for them,most of them will order then go off and get a beer or be talking to others till the food is done never ever have we had a bad experience with them at any place. the one thing is always get the money first, they wont mind paying in advance, but i've learned that sometimes they might forget they even ordered when having a bit to much of the beer,and wonder off and you never see them again that night

 
lol, so true..... my friend here in town just opened his third, first one is strait bikers, second is military and bikers... and the newest one is college and bikers,  he has all points covered now.....
im not so sure about the last one, but we will see, lol
and your right, bikers are a great crowd, his first bar has been going strong for 5 years now, and not a single altercation due to testosterone..... lol, it always seems to be the ladies that have issues, and the guys are all like built in bouncers.... great crowd 
he even has a local chapter of HA that has adopted the place for parties and gatherings, even those guys are easy to get along with and to hang out with......
the average age range is like this.....
poindexters(strait biker) 45-55
pour house(military and biker) 35-45
froggy bottoms(college and biker) 25-35
maybe i will hit them progressively and ramp up to speed accordingly
 
the best thing going fo rme as far as the bars goes is that whenever the are functions, everyones first instinct is pulled pork, i cant tell you how many times i have heard people say they love it, but they are tired of pork and desperately want something different.... there are functions going on at least once a week and sometimes twice a week, and thats just at my buddies places..... there are 8 biker oriented places here in town all doing the same thing...pork......pork....and more pork......
 

I just ordered 2 / 30Lb cases of turkey legs going to smoke them and sell on Wen or thursday looking at $6.95 ea. Got them here in Omaha for a $1.09 Lb. Something different than pork.

i dont know about out there, but around here smoked turkey legs are a gold mine..... you can never go wrong with turkey legs !!
i wonder how many of those i can fit in the Bradley ??  hhmmmm 

It's about the only thing that has a good profit margin and still resonable priced that I might have a chance of some profit or break even on.

Got the brisket today and got Black angus flats when last time I had gotten just regular beef flats at the same price $1.97 pound. and that meat was so tender, can't wait for this meat to get done. Also have 60Lbs of turkey legs. This will help the bottom line! What should or be a price for a 4oz and 8oz sandwich? And the price for 1 1/2 pound turkey leg smoked? Any ideas will help. The last priced sandwichs where at $6.95 for 4oz and $8.95 for 8oz and my wife wants to size back the 8oz to a 6oz sandwich for $8.95.      Thank you Mike

turkey legs around here, fair and festival prices are 6-8 bucks depending on the venue....(county fair 6 bucks/state fair 8 bucks)
sounds like your prices are about 25-30% more out there..... maybe 9 bucks, with a side of dippin sauce..... hard to say without knowing the area
 
sandwich prices WOW!..... i could never go 7 bucks for a 4 oz sandwich, and 9 for a half pounder, i would be shut down..... i can do probably 3 bucks on a 4 oz....maybe 6 on an 8 oz....... i have it figured at about 75 cents an ounce.... or 12 bucks a pound for the meat portions
 
edit: those would be everyday prices.... festival prices may be a dollar an oz depending on venue

BBQ. do you know how much you are loosing during the cooking process?
Lets say with trim, shrinkage and waste that you ar loosing 50%
That brisket is now costing you $3.94 lb + cost of wood and rub/spices.
Roughly .25 oz for your finished product.
Also figure in cost of your roll/bun, sauce, napkins, bags, paper wrap, boats, whatever you are using to produce one sandwich.
say a sand costs you $2.00 to produce, you need to sell it for at least $6.60, more if your market will support the price.
I use 6oz of meat on all my sands, on a 9" roll. That's plenty of meat for most people.
Maybe offer one size, with a make it eatra meaty for x $'s
What kind of bread are you using?
Are you serving sides with the sands, or are they extra?
How big are the turkey legs?

are you seriously loosing 50% of a brisket ??????? or was that just a grand example ???

Could be 40-50%. I always err on the high side for something like this. YMMV ...I loose 40% on butts.
Maybe DRBBQ will chime in on this one.

I'm using a local bakery (rotila bread) 10" sub bun and a 4" round onion bun. the turkey legs are 1 to 1 1/2 pound ea. My brisket so far is losing about 15 to 20% due to shrinkage and trimming.

chefbuba


Could be 40-50%. I always err on the high side for something like this. YMMV ...I loose 40% on butts.
Maybe DRBBQ will chime in on this one.

 
I lose 50% on average on pork butts, and if memory serves me right about 40% on brisket. But when I pull my brisket it's juicy as hell and falling apart. We try to slice it but it just melts and that's what my customers want. After I smoke them I put them in a 6 inch hotel pan fat side down for a couple of hours at 250 degrees,and the rest of the fat melts and forms this rich gravy that we bag with the brisket. But with that said I don't know how you could only lose 15%? Well I do know come to think of it I smoke the whole brisket not the point. I'd have to cook five or six times the number of points that I cook of the whole packer trim briskets. Hope that makes sense. LOL The whole brisket is always cheaper than the flat. Even with the additional fat. Don't be afraid of the whole brisket and my best advice is overcook it and serve a juicy beefy sandwich that screams EAT ME, and ORDER MORE. LOL
Jack

Thank you Jack as that is what I have done.

Dr of BBQ

chefbuba


Could be 40-50%. I always err on the high side for something like this. YMMV ...I loose 40% on butts.
Maybe DRBBQ will chime in on this one.

I lose 50% on average on pork butts, and if memory serves me right about 40% on brisket. But when I pull my brisket it's juicy as hell and falling apart. We try to slice it but it just melts and that's what my customers want. After I smoke them I put them in a 6 inch hotel pan fat side down for a couple of hours at 250 degrees,and the rest of the fat melts and forms this rich gravy that we bag with the brisket. But with that said I don't know how you could only lose 15%? Well I do know come to think of it I smoke the whole brisket not the point. I'd have to cook five or six times the number of points that I cook of the whole packer trim briskets. Hope that makes sense. LOL The whole brisket is always cheaper than the flat. Even with the additional fat. Don't be afraid of the whole brisket and my best advice is overcook it and serve a juicy beefy sandwich that screams EAT ME, and ORDER MORE. LOL
Jack

 

 Whole brisket is what I got. Its takes about 14hrs to cook but it falls apart before you get the knife thur it.

Just my opinion but well Smoked Brisket is afraid of a knife so it just falls apart, when you wave the knife over it. LOL
 
I'll never win a competition with my brisket because it has to be sliced for the judges,and I'm a KCBS judge. And mine just can't be sliced. But my customers love it so that's the upside.
 
A general thought on all your food.....Your food is your work product, it's what you produce. You are the first person it has to impress. In fact your the only person you have to impress. The public may not like  what you cook or how you serve it in great numbers but stay true to your heart and your craft and you'll do fine, in the long run.
 
And don't let the people looking for Big Mack prices force you to down scale your art or your craft. Send them to McDonald's. LOL

Dr.Of BBQ, Thank you and sound advise and thats priceless for Mickey D's. If only we could produce a brisket in 2.2 sec and taste like a rubber bisket. lol Mike